PCF

Friends doing their part

Advanced Prostate Cancer, FLHW, JRC Jewelry, PCF -

At this weekend’s Kansas City 1/2 marathon, this is what many of the runners saw… the race bib on Paige’s back! Paige contacted me early in the summer and said she was training for the race and wanted to raise money for FLHW. Initially she set a goal of $1,500 but by the time she finished, she actually raised nearly $2,100!

Paige, thank you for supporting our cause and contributing to the hope that we share through the research for a cure for advanced prostate cancer.  Words do not adequately express my gratitude!

Back in March I was contacted by a woman from Maryland. She explained that her brother as well as her husband were both battling prostate cancer. Mary also explained that she owns a jewelry store (http://www.jrcjewelry.com) and wanted to know if I would send her some of the blue FLHW bracelets in order for her to sell them to her customers.  Over the next few months she sold several hundred bracelets and raised a few hundred dollars. This was just the beginning!

Early in the summer she informed me that a supplier had donated a beautiful diamond and sapphire bracelet for her to raffle to facilitate further fundraising for our cause. After selling tickets through September, the picture to the left is her brother Richard drawing the winning ticket. When it was over, Mary and the customers of JRC Jewelry had raised $5,000 for FLHW!

Mary, Richard and everyone involved, all I can say is, you are all awesome! 

Poker for Prostates

charity poker, FLHW, PCF, Poker for Prostates -
On Monday night we held our 9th Poker for Prostates event!
It never fails, at every event there is someone that I am blessed to know, who steps forward and amazes me with their generosity! Thanks to him, I am forever grateful!  Once again, I am humbled by the support of all the participants and volunteers who made the evening a success.

The event resulted in 33 players who helped us to raise nearly $2,000!!

This moves us closer to our 2010 goal of donating $40k to PCF, which repesents an increase of 25% from 2009!!

 The action begins!                                  The final table!

 Steve, Mark and David                         Bruce 2nd Place, Brad 1st, Rob 3rd

And yet another

David Emerson, PCF, XL 184 -

Friday was both my monthly appointment with my oncologist and a periodic bone scan. This translated into an entire day at the cancer center. We left the house a little before nine and we didn’t get back home until nearly six.

It provided a chance for a lot of together time for Mary and I, as well as time for a lot of people watching. NOTE: I swear Lady Gaga walked into the Starbuck’s on the Country Club Plaza!  We both got a laugh from this one! We also observed the typical jackass at the cancer center. This is the type of patient that visibly expresses their fear and concern through one of those permanent pissed off looks on their face. They follow that up with harsh words for the poor lady at check in and the cherry on top is when they make comments that clearly articulate the fact they certainly didn’t listen to a word of the instructions they were provided explaining the CT scan process. The prime example is the statement he rudely yelled at the admin person behind the desk, “No I haven’t received any liquids to drink, I’m here for a CAT scan, why would I have to drink anything?”. OK Einstein, I’m going to speak real slow so you can follow along…..you must drink the liquid in order for the scan to capture the pictures of your insides!

Sorry, but sometimes rude, ignorant people just get to me. Back to the matter at hand, my status update….

Every time I have a bone scan Mary patiently waits in the reception area and when I come out she asks me ‘what did you see? How did it look?’ Usually there is not much to report, and there didn’t seem to be this time either. However, after having radiation treatments back in June, I had expected much less visible activity on the monitor than I began to see as the scan was about half way over. There was a clearly visible spot on one of my hips. I’m not sure that it is more or less than March, but as I said, it was more than I expected to see.

Dr. V then provided this update; my hips and legs are ‘stable’ when compared to the last scan in March. I was hoping they were better after having radiation treatments in June but stable beats the alternative! My PSA however was at 35.08, up from 28.69 last month. Not too much of an increase, but not lower.

We spent considerable time discussing a new trial that was recommended by Dr. Simons of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. When I was in Washington, DC he mentioned that I should look into the trial and discuss it with my local Oncologist. There are three sites he recommended; San Francisco, Ann Arbor and Boston. At this point we are leaning towards Boston and hope to connect with the doctor there this week. Dr. Simons was kind enough to provide us with the contact information for all three centers.  We have selected Boston and have sent an email requesting to be considered for the current trial. The drug is called ‘XL 184’ and is specifically being used to target cancers that have metastasized in the bone. 

I’ll post again as soon as we talk with the doctor from Boston.

Another successful year for FLHW

Advanced Prostate Cancer, David Emerson, FLHW, PCa, PCF -

As many of you know, one of the first things I did after being diagnosed with advanced pc was to establish a non-profit foundation, the Faith – Love – Hope – Win Foundation. The simple mission of this foundation is to raise awareness of the importance of testing and early detection and to raise money to fund the research required to develop improved treatments and ultimately, a cure. In just three and a half years we have donated over $100,000 to the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Here is a recent message that we sent to some of our supporters:

On behalf of the Board of the Faith – Love – Hope – Win Foundation, we would like to personally thank you for your participation and support of the 2008 FLHW golf tournament.

This year’s event was a great success; a success that would not have been realized without your generosity. We were blessed with a beautiful day, a full field of golfers, and an exceptional group of volunteers.

The result of this year’s event is a $32,000 donation to the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF). This donation will be doubled through a matching program at PCF. Furthermore, these funds will be dedicated to support research for improved treatments and a cure for advanced prostate cancer.

It is through your participation, coupled with the support of all of our sponsors, participants, and volunteers that we have, in just four short years, cumulatively donated over $100,000 to PCF for advanced prostate cancer research.
­
The research that our donation supports is what gives us hope that a cure will be discovered in our lifetime. Thank you for sharing in our hope.

Mark your calendar now for the 2009 FLHW Tournament which is scheduled for Friday, September 25th at Ironhorse Golf Course. We look forward to seeing you there!

I extend this message of thanks to all who have supported our mission through the years!
2008 was our most successful year so far:

Another Successful FLHW Event

Charity Disc Golf, disc golf, FLHW, Kansas City Disc Golf, kcfdc.org, PCF, Prostate Cancer Foundation -

Yesterday we held the first annual FLHW Disc Golf Tournament.
Pictured on the left are the winners, Dave and Arturo who shot 38 in the first round and 39 in the second for a total score of -31!

The picture on the right is of Arturo’s winning putt during the closest to the pin contest.
Click on it and in the enlarged version you can see the disc about to land in the chains.

The day started out blustery and in the mid 40’s, but by the afternoon round we were in short sleeves and the temperatures climbed well into the 60’s.

26 teams participated and helped us raise approximately $2,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Again, the kindness of strangers as well as friends and family leaves me somewhat speechless. I owe a big thank you to Pete, Gary, the FLHW Board, the volunteers and everyone who participated in the event.